1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) printers and antennas.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following prior art is made of Record: U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,377; U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,972; U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,907; U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,852; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/222,692 filed Aug. 16, 2002, Publication No. 2004/0032443 published Feb. 19, 2004.
RFID printers are now required to be capable of both printing on record members, such as labels, tags, etc., and capable of writing to and/or reading from an RFID transponder contained on the record member. One requirement is that certain record members e.g., compliance labels contain transponders. Such compliance labels are frequently six inches in length. Therefore, the transponders are to be located on the record members at a distance of six inches apart along the length of the web of record members. Placing the transponders in the web six inches apart may prevent the reprogramming of an RFID transponder upstream and/or downstream of the RFID read/write station of the printer.
It has been proposed to use a whip antenna to write to and/or read RFID transponders in RFID printers.